days of naze

4 things
09:43 PM

"During the time Republicans have controlled the House, Oregon has borrowed over $2 billion just to balance budgets. The popular impression that the House Republicans are fiscal conservatives is completely false. They have foisted this huge debt on our grandchildren, as well as the grossly irresponsible tax kicker, while establishing several billion dollars of tax loopholes for their friends."

-Oregon House Democracts are now talking directly to the citizens of Oregon

...

“You have to understand,” Hanson replied, “this is essential to producing a great boychoir.” By sexualizing the students, he explained, he was transforming them from innocents into more complicated creatures, enabling them to render choral music in all its sublime passion. “It’s what all great boychoirs do,” Hanson said.

-Creative Commons co-founder, Lawrence Lessig, recounts the nightmare of abuse he experienced at elite school

...

"So it seemed the members of the Flat Earth Society still had company. I found it agreeable to imagine the effect that opening day's results might have on them. When the froth in Rolla's garage calmed down and people went back to work, I had called home. 'I have the honor to inform you that your daughter set fastest time of day on opening day of the sixty-first Indianapolis 500...'"

-Janet Guthrie, the first woman to qualify in the Indy 500

...

"Scientology is rooted in strict scientific principles, such as the measurement of engrams in the brain by the E-Meter," Kurz said. "Scientology uses strictly scientific methodologies to undo the damage done 75 million years ago by the Galactic Confederation's evil warlord Xenu—we offer our preclear followers procedures to erase overts in the reactive mind. Conversely, Fictionology is essentially just a bunch of make-believe nonsense."

May 22, 2005

some of why i love teaching
10:16 PM

Scholastic Book orders. Drawing rodent bones that came from an owl pellet. Reading Shel Silverstein poems to students jammed onto our classroom carpet. A forest of hands in the air after asking for a volunteer to share a math solution on the overhead. Confiscating a folded paper fortune teller and then discovering that each of the flaps with a student's name on it features a compliment, not an insult. The sound of 28 students enrapt in their books. Parents that don't have to, but prefer to address me as Mr. Naze. I'm the student as much as I am the teacher. A single piece of blue paper marked with story, image, and instruction. The knowledge that 28 families have entrusted their child's education to me. The small rituals that sustain us. I am the captain of the ship. I know where we are going and I know how to get there.

heads i win, tails you lose
12:56 PM

Dear Radical Right Senators,

Congratulations. In your lust for power you have entered a no-win situation. If you succeed in nuking the Democrats, you will be crucified in the 2006 elections by voters who condemn your fascist seize for power. You fail to nuke your brethren and you lose your iron grip of control (credibility was gone long ago).

Choke on that, bastards.

...

Send your own love letter to the Imper-- I mean U.S. Senate using the MoveOn PAC form. You might want to try diplomacy if you are in a state where you are represented by a reasonable, moderate Republican. We've been working on Gordon Smith here in Oregon for a while, but he's with the bad guys. He likes to wear the moderate mask, but where you are is *always* dictated by what you do, not what you say.

May 14, 2005

amazing parents + Internet = solutions for daughter
12:08 PM

I've been reading Rob Rummel-Hudson's stuff for more than 7 years now and he is still consistently amazing.

His darling daughter has a very rare neurological disorder that interferes with speech development. Rob and his wife have been tenacious and fierce in getting her the treatment, services, and tools she needs to function and develop.

Without their extraordinary determination and the Internet as a research/communication/fund-raising medium, it's difficult to see their daughter getting an invaluable and necessary communication device.

May 10, 2005

ch-ch-ch-changes
07:24 PM

It's official: Next year I'll be teaching 4th grade (instead of moving down to 3rd) at a nice school about a 5 minute drive from my current school. It took a little bit for the grade assignments to shake out because this year the staff had to accomodate a large class moving through the school by taking split class assignments.

I'm glad to still have a job, to have a job at a good school, and to not have to compound the change of moving to a new school with having to learn a whole new curriculum. On the face of it, most of you are probably imagining that the difference between 3rd and 4th is pretty small. And I could see how you'd think that.

But you'd be wrong. Portland's math curriculum is detailed to a high degree, the social studies focus is Portland instead of the state of Oregon as a whole meaning I would have to develop new units of study, students are at a distinctly different developmental place as readers and writers, and emotionally they are less stable.

Don't get me wrong -- I could do it. I'd be good. But making that shift after only 2 years in 4th grade would take a ton of extra work and it wouldn't be the best use of my skills and experience: I would be restarting a learning curve that I've been climbing for almost 2 years now.

May 09, 2005

coming up
09:46 PM

This morning at 2 a.m., my 8 year old woke me.

"I don't feel very good."

"Let's get you to the bathroom."

He bent over and I knew it was too late. I pointed at the floor in hope that he would miss the bed.

Mission accomplished. Several splashes of sickly sweet vomit struck the thin rug in roughly the same spot.

Nothing phases me anymore. As his mother settled him in another bed, I got towels and wiped up the vile puddle with only the occasional gag. The odor lingered until this evening when I could purchase a quart of Kids 'N' Pets Stain & Odor Remover to douse the rug in enzymes.

May 03, 2005

tonic of tunes
10:01 PM

Very stressed. Facing many job changes + sick child + up late writing detailed lesson plans for my sub tomorrow + $ issues.

Clicked on Launchcast: X - Los Angeles, Modern English - Melt With You, Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On.

Damn, I feel better!

intelligent tax dialogue?
09:43 PM

Yes, thank god for Blue Oregon.

May 01, 2005

Aaarrrrrrrrrrr!!!
09:45 PM

I've been shanghai'd by Sid Meier's Pirates!